


The Beast

by radiomutt



Category: Hornblower (TV), Hornblower - C. S. Forester
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-31 01:50:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13964760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radiomutt/pseuds/radiomutt
Summary: Bush haunted by a beast called monopoly.





	The Beast

Bush didn’t know for sure when it had manifested, this hungry, angry beast inside him. Maybe the first time they were together, Horatio pressed up close to him, like he was trying to crawl inside Bush’s skin and live inside his heart, when he whispered against his cheek, “Make me yours.”

_ Make me yours.  _

Bush had always belonged to Horatio, from the moment he’d asked him to be his first lieutenant aboard the Hotspur - no, before that probably. On the Renown, the first time he saw that clever glint in Horatio’s eye, how naturally men gravitated toward him, obeyed him, and realised Horatio was a man made to lead, and Bush was ever a follower. Maybe that was when he first began to belong to Horatio, until the boy possessed every breath of him. But to make Horatio his? A thought he’d never entertained even as a fantasy. He’d never dare. Horatio wasn’t his. He belonged to the world, to the sea, to the ship and her crew, and a part of him maybe was given freely to Bush, on loan, but never his for sure.

Make me yours, Horatio had whispered, and for one night, Bush possessed him completely, and one night was more than he’d ever ask for. More than he deserved.

When had the beast come then. A wolf knocking at his door, large and dark with jagged teeth and a terrible appetite. When did it begin crawling through his veins, when did it begin to boil his blood and gnaw at his heart, howling. Every smile Horatio gave to someone that wasn’t him, every gentle touch by a hand that wasn’t his, set the beast howling.

_ Mine. _

Every chance he was given to touch Horatio, as small as the back of their hands brushing, made his heart flutter, and then squeeze tight, in the hold of the beast’s jaws. Every kiss, every trace of his hand over those hollow cheeks, every smile thrown his way both fed the beast and made it’s aching hunger grow all the more.

_ Mine! _

He’d never asked to possess Horatio. He didn’t deserve such a thing. Horatio was more than just his lover. He was an officer of the Royal Navy, he was a leader to his men, a captain of his ship, he belonged to duty, he belonged to the sea, he belonged to war and loyalty, he belonged-

**_MINE!_ **

When had the beast devoured him, when had it grown so large, that there was barely a bit of Bush left. When did it begin to wear his skin, to stalk the decks, to look with hungry eyes at Horatio. He’d make love to Horatio like he was devouring him, he’d bite and bruise him, scratch his back, beg to make him belong to Bush, Bush alone, nobody else. He was desperate to possess him.  _ To make him mine. _

In quiet mornings, when the rest of the world didn’t exist, if only for a few minutes, when the world consisted only of the two of them in bed, and there was nothing else to which Horatio could possibly belong, the beast would be sated. A worryingly small figure in his arms, where he belonged, where it felt right. When Horatio belonged to Bush, to only Bush, the beast slept, purring, happy.

But the moment would end. The world would expand. There would be a dozen other things to which Horatio had to tend to, to lend himself to, leaving very little left over for Bush. Horatio didn’t belong to him.

But every inch of the beast belonged to Horatio.


End file.
